Comparison of the clinical symptoms of myocardial infarction in the middle-aged and elderly

Background: Myocardial infarction is a fatal symbol of cardiovascular diseases, which usually occurs in people over 45 years. However, the incidence of factors such as obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes and metabolic syndrome has increased the risk of developing early cardiovascular diseases in the middle-aged people. This study was conducted to compare the clinical manifestation of myocardial infarction in the middle-aged and elderly people.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, the participants were 366 patients less and more than 55 years old with acute myocardial infarction admitted to the CCU of Imam Reza Hospital in Amol. Data were collected using demographic form and a checklist of clinical symptoms. Statistical analysis was performed by SPSS (version 20) using descriptive statistics, chi-square, odds ratio and the Mantel-Haenszel (α= 0.05 and d=0.3).

Results: The results showed that patients over 55 years manifested the symptoms of shortness of breath (1.66), weakness (2.62), vomiting (1.98) and hiccups (2.19) more than the patients under55 years. Also, by controlling the confounding effect of gender, these symptoms had emerged in >55 year-old patients than in <55 year-old ones.

Conclusion: According to the results, the elderly patients have more chance of manifesting nonspecific symptoms. Therefore, the healthcare providers, especially nurses should be more careful in this regard during the initial assessment.